According to spaceweather.com, there's a chance we may get to see a meteor shower on Saturday evening.
The Ursids may appear between 4 and 5 p.m. (eastern time) on Saturday, emerging from Polaris, aka the North Star, and should be visible for about another 4 hours.
Polaris is easy to spot. Look for it in the northern sky, at an angle above the horizon equal to your latitude.
Confused? Don't be. For example, Baltimore is located at about 39 degrees north, so Polaris appears in the northern sky a little more than a third of the distance between the horizon and a point directly overhead. The farther north you are, the higher in the sky Polaris appears.
Another trick is to use the two stars at the edge of the cup of the Big Dipper as pointers to lead you to the Little Dipper. Polaris is the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper.
Polaris is also the point around which all the other stars appear to revolve in the night sky. Pretty neat.
Anyhow, since the sky should be pretty dark by about 4:30 or so, this is a nice opportunity to do some meteor watching without having to stay up half the night or crawl out of bed at some horrific hour of the morning.
Good luck. Leave a comment if you spot some meteors.
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